Home Cooking: Warm harvest meals

Harvest time really allows you to embrace a plant-centric diet more easily. All these beautiful vegetables are being picked, stored, pickled and fermented. Use some of those cold weather greens and root vegetables, add dried beans, grains and other vegetables that are hanging in the refrigerator for a hearty porridge, breakfast or soup.

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Warm and savory porridge

Usually, morning porridge is sweet with milk and sugar, fruit and nuts. This version is all savory. Think risotto or creamy grits.

Ingredients

1 cup oatmeal or leftover grains

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, enough to cover bottom of pot

2 cups water

Celtic salt to taste

Generous handful of greens

1 tablespoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon hemp, flax or chia seeds

Directions

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Heat your pot to medium, add oil and garlic, and cook for a minute or two. Add oatmeal coat. Add water and greens, and cook covered like any other oatmeal, depending on the thickness of grains.

Stir in nutritional yeast, seeds and drizzle with olive oil.

Options: Crack an egg in the center, turn off the heat, and let it cook another 5 minutes covered.

Traditional cold salads make me just that, cold. So I switch out some traditional salad vegetables and chop up others. In this recipe, steamed/sautéed cruciferous veggies are the main event, and then I add raw veggies, cooked grains and garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds and dried blueberries or tart cherries. I still get the crunch and color, but in a warm way. This will make two rather large salads that fit in individual pasta bowls. You can also serve it in a big wooden salad bowl and have everyone help themselves. Any leftovers are great for lunch

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Warm salad

Ingredients

1 bunch lacinato kale, ribless and chopped.

Handful of Brussels sprouts (about 6-8), chopped

1/2 head small cauliflower

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup cooked grains (rice, quinoa or a grain mix)

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

1 carrot, grated

1 green onion, chopped

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/8 cup white balsamic and raw apple cider vinegar

Roasted pumpkin seeds

Dried blueberries

Celtic salt and pepper to taste

Directions

In a saute pan, add the cruciferous base and a little water and salt. Cover. As soon as it begins to boil, turn it off. Steam for 5-7 minutes.

While that steams, put your other chopped veggies in a bowl and add lemon juice. Toss.

Drain the steamed veggies.

Turn the heat to medium, add two teaspoons of extra-virgin olive oil and chopped garlic. Coat and toss well.

Add the bowl of lemon soaked veggies and the grains.Toss well and cook for about 5 minutes constantly stirring.

Add vinegar and the rest of the olive oil, toss and cook through.

Pour into bowls, top with pumpkins seeds and blueberries.

Options: dried cherries, sauerkraut, baby spinach.

Coming home after a long day, hungry and cold. This is probably the easiest bean soup recipe to make. You can kick up the nutrition with a little smoke-flavored dulse. Seaweeds and good sea salt, like Celtic, add trace minerals that are missing in our foods these days. All part of the microcosm that runs our inner network.

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Red lentil stew

Ingredients

2 cups red lentils soaked

1 strip dulse seaweed, cut with scissors

Extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1/2 medium large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon coriander

1 1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)

Celtic salt and pepper taste

Grated ginger

Dash of cayenne

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed

Rib of celery, chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

Can diced tomatoes

Can full fat coconut milk

Bag of baby spinach

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Options: Add chopped any cauliflower

Directions

Soak your red lentils to decrease the phytic acid.

In a soup pot, add some olive oil to the pot and heat over medium. Add aromatic spices, garlic and onions. Coat and cook through until onions are translucent. Add a little water if it starts to burn.

Turn off the heat, cover and let it cool slowly. It will still cook and be just perfect for next day’s lunch.

Serve with your favorite bread for scooping and dipping.

Note from Suzanne Anderson: This week’s column was written by my friend, Tara. She has shared her vegan recipes in this column before, and I asked her to give us some vegan options for cold winter nights when the snow is blowing. Here’s my question to you, dear readers: Would you like to see a mix of vegan and meat-based in this column? Let me know at suzanne@suzanneelizabeths.com.

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